At the start of this year I was invited to write some posts for The Low Countries blog. The Low Countries is an English-language year book on Netherlandish culture and art, with an international readership. You can read more about their blogs here.

​For the Low Countries blogs I focused on topics that interest and mean a lot to me: Dutch poetry and translation, museums and learning, 17th-century paintings and 21st-century presentation of such paintings.Here are two reading samples. Click through if you like to read more.

‘Framing the Museum’ discusses two recent documentaries that go behind the scene at two world-reknown national museums, the National Gallery in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam:

Hoogendijk chose to mirror the Rijks’ collection by playing with light and shades. Her frames echo the fog on the collection’s early-1900s cityscapes, the golden glamour of its seventeenth-century burger-portraits. A conflict between the Amsterdam Cyclists Union and the Director about a cycling lane further adds to the documentary’s drama. It gives insight into the Dutch poldercultuur of coalitions and compromises, and decision-making processes at public institutions.Read more

‘Artful Ageing’ is about two exhibitions on works by Turner and Rembrandt in old age (Tate Britain and National Gallery):

In the New York Times David Brooks explained why elders smile. Brooks argues they are skilled in ‘bifocalism’: elderly can, at the same time, relax and focus. Their creative vision is liberating exactly because it goes hand in hand with a knowing sense of perspective. Brooks sees this as an accomplishment, rooted in effort and experience.

Contemporary critics questioned Rembrandt’s and Turner’s eyesight near the end of their lives, yet these artists were skilled in the art of Brooks’ bifocalism. They were craftsmen whose work literally shines light on intimate details, as well as the grand and magnificent. These two artists painted not against their age, but because of their age.Read more

Leave a Reply.

What makes me tick?

I am interested in the links between art and society. I never doubted that art can help us gain insight into societal issues. I like to work on projects that confirm this. That art is for everybody. And if art makes your head crunch, if it makes you laugh out loud or shed a tear, it is definitely good stuff.